Statetap: Stormwater proposal down the drain

This week, voters in Colorado Springs rejected a proposal that would have created a regional stormwater authority to collect fees and fund flood control projects. Stormwater drainage has been an ongoing saga in this town. Flooding consistently causes problems but there’s no revenue to do anything about it. Now, downstream, Pueblo county is toying with the idea of taking legal action. Colorado Springs entered a deal in 2009 to control water flow in Fountain Creek, and now that this proposal was rejected, some in Pueblo are saying their upstream neighbors are not holding up their end of things. Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace told the Gazette he expects Colorado Springs to “find the money somewhere else,” but utilities officials in the Springs say they’re living up to the terms of the 2009 negotiations just fine. Pueblo officials are also peeved that Colorado Springs voters approved a measure to keep tax money for park improvement, but not the stormwater authority. Via the Pueblo Chieftain.

Some Denver city council members are shocked at the record level of overtime spending in the Denver Sheriff Department, which, so far this year, has already topped $6 million. City officials say short staffing at the downtown jail is mostly to blame for the skyrocketing overtime costs. Via the Denver Post.

Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt notified security at the state capitol that he had received death threats earlier this year. Klingenschmitt, who just handily won election to the statehouse in his south-eastern Colorado Springs district, runs the website “Pray in Jesus’s Name” on which he frequently espouses anti-gay rhetoric. That, coupled with an email he sent in August comparing Congressman Jared Polis to Islamic terrorists beheading Christians and his recent refusal to meet with LGBTQ activists unless they went through a background check, is why he’s being targeted, he told the Gazette‘s Megan Schrader. “I would say it is time for people of good will on both sides of the political debate to come together to have reasonable discussions about these issues,” he said. “Maybe that includes me. Maybe I need to tone down my rhetoric, but there have been liberals who throw rhetoric at people of faith, and I think are stirring up these crazy people on the left. They are inciting violence.”

Anonymous no more: Denver police named 10 suspects arrested Wednesday night in relation to the “Million Masks March” that left the western steps of the state capitol defaced with graffiti. The march was one of more than 480 iterations all over the world organized by the internet activist group Anonymous to celebrate anarchist Guy Fawkes. Via the Denver Post.

On Halloween, an unknown prankster put a remarkably well-crafted dinosaur head on top of a newly installed sculpture in Durango. The following Monday, a group of teenagers stole it and took pictures wearing it. When the Durango Herald reported the crime, the teens realized it was a crime and returned it to local police. The dinosaur head is now in custody. The creator of said dinosaur head, who must have considerable artistic skill, remains an enigma.

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